Popcru boss hits out at police cluster restructuring

The proposed restructuring in the SA Police Service, which would change clusters into districts, will benefit only undeserving officers who are loved by the top brass and will not serve the community at large.

That is the view of provincial Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) chair Colonel Loyiso Mdingi, who said when SAPS phased out the clusters and brought back the districts, a plan was needed to implement the process of restructuring.

But instead, Mdingi told the Dispatch, SAPS was now implementing the restructuring and had started to deploy commanders from clusters to districts without tabling a solid plan with the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council (SSSBC) or the Secretariat for Police.

As a result, Popcru has labelled the process flawed and Mdingi warned that this was a ploy to “promote buddies who don’t have qualifications”.

Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana referred all inquiries to police national spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, whom the Dispatch sent questions to and followed up with several phone calls, but no response was forthcoming by the print deadline.

“This will fail because people promote people they love and not according to their skills, and we are saying let’s correct that and place individuals according to their skills,” Mdingi said.

He accused SAPS of breaching a recent court interdict which ordered the process to be halted until all the relevant stakeholders were consulted on how the process would unfold.

“We have taken this to court and won, but SAPS is still continuing with the restructuring, meaning they are now in contempt of court.

“The court told SAPS to go and consult with the unions before any restructuring.”

Mdingi said if they allowed the restructuring to happen without a guiding document, many deserving and qualified officers would be overlooked.

“We are fighting that and now we are working on a second interdict to reverse this, and all those already placed must pay back the money they might have got, and whoever authorised their move must be charged.

“Crime is very high at the moment because those in top positions place unqualified personnel in important positions. That needs to be corrected.”

Mdingi said Popcru was not going to accept changes unless they were first discussed in the SSSBC where a guiding document could be developed.